The World and Everything in It: July 16, 2025

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

The Epstein backlash: Some Trump supporters are not buying the administration’s “nothing to see here” line.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Hunter Baker is standing by for Washington Wednesday … we’ll also talk with him about Elon Musk’s third-party tease and why outsider movements keep failing in the American system.

And the Supreme Court greenlights deep cuts at the Department of Education.

Also today, World Tour.

And later, the life and legacy of pastor-teacher John MacArthur.

LARRY KING: MacArthur, what happens when you die?

MACARTHUR: You go to one of two places, according to Scripture.

BROWN: It’s Wednesday, July 16th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Michael Waltz confirmation hearing » Senate Republicans are hoping to fill the last remaining major vacancy in the Trump administration.

AUDIO: [gavel] The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee will come to order.

Members on Tuesday grilled former National Security advisor Mike Waltz … who is now President Trump’s pick for ambassador to the United Nations.

The nominee said the UN is a body in need of reform. And he said nowhere is that more evident that with what he said is a clear anti-Israel bias.

WALTZ:  From 2015 to 2023, the general assembly passed 154 resolutions against Israel versus 71 against all other nations combined.

But Democratic Senator Jean Shaheen voiced concern over proposed US funding cuts to the UN.

SHAHEEN:  If we walk away from international bodies like the un, the result won't be reforms that advance American interests. The result will be that international bodies become increasingly dependent on China.

But Waltz countered that even with those cuts, the U.S. would remain the UN’s largest financial backer, covering more than a quarter of its budget. And that, he argued … gives the U.S. real leverage to push for reform.

Michael Waltz was removed as Trump’s national security adviser in May … weeks after a journalist was mistakenly looped into a sensitive conversation between top security officials … about US airstrikes in Yemen. Waltz accepted the blame for that … but insisted no classified information was divulged.

SOUND: [Demonstrators in Tel Aviv]

Israel-Gaza latest » Israeli demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv yesterday...once again calling for an end to Israel's war with the terror group Hamas.

But there are no signs that the war is nearing its end. In Gaza…

SOUND: [Artillery fire]

...the sound of Israeli artillery fire...as the Israeli army warned residents of Gaza City to evacuate ahead of its advance.

This comes as negotiators in Qatar continue to work urgently … to try and broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group.

Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid al-Ansari:

AL-ANSARI: Our efforts are relentless in getting an agreement in place at the soonest possible time, regardless of any political posturing around it. 

He said negotiators are working round the clock.

Inflation report » A new government report shows US inflation heated up in the month of June.

Prices climbed 2.7 percent last month as compared to one year ago. On a month to month basis, prices were up 0.3% from where they were in May.

President Trump reacted Tuesday, telling reporters …

TRUMP:  Very slight, uh, essentially, uh, they were exactly as anticipated, very low inflation. 

Economist Ellen Zentner with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management said with the new numbers “Inflation has begun to show the first signs” that the cost of President Trump’s tariffs are passing through to consumers.

Analysts say it’s starting to show up in costs for things like sneakers, furniture and appliances.

The president says the new tariffs are needed to leverage better trade deals for the U.S. … and to rebuild America’s manufacturing capacity.

Spending cut legislation » This week the Senate is expected to take up a House-passed bill that would claw back 9-billion dollars in federal spending.

GOP Sen. John Kennedy:

KENNEDY:  The president's asking us to reduce spending by $9 billion. Yeah, that's a lot of money, but that's one 10th of 1% of the budget.

The Department of Government Efficiency had recommended those cuts.

The legislation would cut more than a billion dollars for NPR and PBS. Republicans say taxpayers should no longer be forced to help foot the bill for those media groups.

But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says that would have a—quote—“devastating” impact for …

SCHUMER:  Local news throughout the country, including in rural areas that lack broadband and other options.

The bill would also cut nearly $8-billion for foreign aid programs … that the Trump administration says do not serve American interests.

Senate republicans are hoping to pass it through reconciliation, which only requires a one-vote majority … meaning Democrats could not filibuster the bill.

Flooding in Northeast » Authorities say two people in New Jersey were killed when floodwaters swept away their vehicle … during a storm that pounded northeastern states Monday night and Tuesday morning.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy:

MURPHY:    Six inches of rain in under two and a half hours in two waves. Uh, importantly, one wave sort of knocked a lot of these communities a little bit off kilter. The second one came in for the, for the kill.

Some roads in New Jersey and Pennsylvania remained closed Tuesday … and severe weather triggered hundreds of flight delays and cancellations.

Texas mail abortions » A New York county clerk is refusing once more … to enforce a fine against an abortionist levied by the state of Texas. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more:

BENJAMIN EICHER: Ulster County’s acting clerk, Taylor Bruck, this week refused for a second time … to file a Texas‑issued judgment against Margaret Carpenter.

A Texas judge had fined her just over $100,000 for prescribing abortion pills via telehealth to a woman in Texas.

Bruck cited New York’s “shield law,” which blocks enforcement of out‑of‑state abortion rulings.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton the New York clerk has a duty under civil‑procedure rules.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul also declined Louisiana’s request to extradite Carpenter on felony charges related to abortion drugs.

The clash highlights growing tension between blue‑state protections for abortionists … and red‑state protections for the unborn.

The legal battle could ultimately land at the steps of the US Supreme Court.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Hunter Baker joins us for Washington Wednesday. Plus, the death of pastor John MacArthur. 

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Wednesday, the 16th of July.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Time now for Washington Wednesday.

Let’s start with fallout from the Epstein investigation … we did talk a little about this last week. Attorney General Pam Bondi said it’s case-closed—despite earlier promises that suggested we were about to get bombshell revelations. That nothing-to-see-here response didn’t sit well with many Trump supporters.

Over the weekend, several took their frustrations to a TurningPoint USA conference. Fox News host Laura Ingraham polled the crowd on the Epstein case.

SOUND: How many of you are satisfied– you can, you can clap– satisfied with the results of the Epstein investigation? [crowd boos]

MYRNA: Even Turning Point USA head Charlie Kirk seemed to back away, saying he’s trusting the administration to handle it.

Here he is on Monday, after a weekend call with the President.

KIRK: Honestly, I'm done talking about Epstein for the time being. I’m going to trust my friends in the administration. I’m going to trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done, solve it, the ball’s in their hands.

EICHER: Joining us now is lawyer and political scientist Hunter Baker. He’s provost of North Greenville University and a contributor to World Opinions. Hunter, good morning.

HUNTER BAKER: Good morning.

EICHER: Hey, so what do you make of the conservative backlash here, Hunter? Is this real tension between Trump and MAGA, or do you think it’s just kind of an online frustration that will disappear at some point?

BAKER: Well, so I know that, I know this is big on social media, but the thing that I keep wondering is, are we actually going to see any polling impact from this, you know? So if I, if I continue to watch the polls on job approval or favorability, am I going to see any changes? And I kind of doubt that we are. I suspect that a lot of this is in the area of what we might call anecdata, right? Anecdote and data mashed up into one thing, where it's going to, it's going to make a lot of noise, and we're going to hear a lot, but it's sort of the podcast grist, as opposed to being much more important.

The other thing I want to say is that we've had Trump pouring water all over this thing. Did he participate in ginning up this controversy, as he has with other controversies? That is certainly the case, but he has made it totally clear that he stands with Pam Bondi. And in the July 15 Wall Street Journal, Alan Dershowitz, who was Epstein's lawyer, or at least one of his lawyers, really made clear that to the extent that there's any kind of a list, there may be a guest list, but that guest list does not have any current office holders on it. Now translation, if there are no current office holders on that list, that means Donald Trump is not on that list. So that would, that would kind of dispel the idea that Trump is crushing this thing because he is some sort of person of interest, or something like that.

BROWN: Now shifting to Elon Musk—he floated a new party on the Fourth of July and says he’s serious about fielding candidates in 2026. President Trump dismissed it.

TRUMP: Third parties have never worked, so he can have fun with it, but, uh, I think it's ridiculous.

And the president has a point: third parties almost never get traction, even though dissatisfaction with the two-party system seems sky high.

Is this Musk being Musk, or is there a real appetite for something outside the Republican tent? What’s the significance here?

BAKER: Yeah, so I think that there, there is certainly an appetite. Certainly there are many Americans who feel misrepresented or over represented or underrepresented by our two party binary system, and they wish that there was something else that was closer to their own preferences. But the problem is basically structural. There are other countries that have a proportional system that makes it quite possible to have maybe 5, 6, 7 political parties who then are able to form coalition governments. We do not have that. We have a winner take all system, and it's simply one or the other, and it makes it extremely hard for a third party to come in.

Now, we had something interesting with Ross Perot, who made a significant impact in 1992, less in ‘96, tried to set up a third party, the Reform Party, which people may remember that Donald Trump contested that in 2000. He was interested in maybe being the Reform Party candidate in 2000 but it didn't work out. But the Reform Party sort of petered out, and we've only seen third parties that are sort of marginal, like the Green Party and the Libertarian Party.

If Elon Musk really wants to try to achieve his goals, which right now he's focusing on paying off the debt, then really the way that he would be most likely to be successful would be to pull a takeover of one of the two parties. That's effectively what Donald Trump did with the Republican Party. Donald Trump really changed the priorities and sort of some of the fundamental goals of the Republican Party, starting in 2016. And you could imagine another figure, especially one who had extraordinary resources like Elon Musk, being able to reorient a political party to achieve goals that would work out a lot better than making a third party in our system.

EICHER: So Hunter, let's pivot away from Elon Musk and talk about the Democrats doing a little retooling of their own, though, this is more about mechanics than message or ideology. There was a pretty big piece in The New York Times saying that some of the party's biggest data firms are running some pilot programs, some cash prize contests, even AI analysis of door knocking campaigns to try to figure out what still works. The goal here being, I guess, to find out which voters are still listening, how to reach them before the midterms in 2026.

So Hunter, this is pretty typical political soul searching after a kind of a stinging defeat. But what do you make of the Democrats going back to the drawing board here. Is it possible that they find out, for example, that Mamdani, the New York socialist candidate for mayor, represents the future of the party, or do they go moderate?

BAKER: It's a good question. At the conclusion of the Cold War, the Democrats looked inward and they decided to kind of come out with a more pro-business direction. That was Bill Clinton's run in 1992 he was going to be the pro-business Democrat. He was going to be more moderate on abortion. You remember the line about safe, legal and rare? You know he was supposedly appealing to the NASCAR voter in that election.

At another time, I can remember a lot of hullabaloo around work being done by George Lakoff, who was trying to find the rhetorical keys to victory in electioneering for the left. You know, that sort of thing goes on whenever you suffer a significant defeat and you're experiencing the other side winning in public policy, and that's going to happen now with AI. The truth is, everybody is going to be using AI to that end. Republicans and Democrats. And the Republicans are going to have to figure out what the post-Trump future looks like as well.

Now with regard to Mamdani in New York, I think that a lot of Democrats are in crisis over him, because he is pushing the socialist button harder than even Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. He is being pretty frank about it. And so I hear a lot of Democrats going on, say, CNBC or or similar outlets and kind of saying, “I am not a socialist, I'm a capitalist. I'm a Democrat who is a capitalist.” And so you are going to see a battle within the Democratic Party over that kind of identity.

BROWN: One more question before we let you go, Hunter. A major move this week from the Supreme Court on the emergency docket: the justices cleared the way for the Trump administration to move ahead with mass layoffs at the Department of Education, over 13-00 jobs cut, including most of the Office for Civil Rights. Now, critics say it’s a back door dismantling of a cabinet agency, something only Congress has the authority to do.

Hunter, are we seeing a structural shift in how federal agencies are governed?

BAKER: Yeah, so it's all a question over what does it mean for the President to have authority over the executive branch? I mean, it's unquestionable constitutionally that the President has the authority to run the executive branch. Now you're certainly right that you can't just take away agencies, especially when they've been established by law, but you can reorganize. And I think that arguably, that's a lot of what's being done here. You know, some of the functions that have been in education will get farmed out to other agencies. It's not like they're going to just stop doing the things that the law requires. You know, the wide variety of laws that have been passed over decades and decades, there may just be simply some sort of reassignment of those things. I agree that he cannot completely eradicate the department without an act of Congress. I do think that he has wide authority to reorganize.

BROWN: Hunter. Baker is North Greenville University Provost and a world opinions contributor. Thanks for joining us, Hunter.

BAKER: Thank you.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour.

For decades, New Zealand has seen her 20-somethings head overseas for a backpacker’s working holiday. But recently, many haven’t come back.

Data reveals many young professionals are leaving the country in record numbers.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: But there may be a silver lining. The country reports a lot of people are immigrating to New Zealand … offsetting the natives migrating out.

WORLD correspondent Amy Lewis reports.

AMY LEWIS: In April, New Zealand began offering the Active Investor Plus visa. It’s meant to encourage wealthy overseas investors to become permanent residents in the “Land of the Long White Cloud.” To qualify, you need to be able to invest at least $3 million U.S. dollars and live in the country for only three weeks over three years. It’s an expensive vacation to Middle Earth.

NATIONAL PARTY: And since then we’ve had 189 applications representing over a billion dollars of investment into New Zealand.

This country the size of Great Britain has four-and-a-half times more sheep than people and twice as many cows. It boasts snowy mountains and lush green valleys. For fans of the Lord of the Rings movies, who wouldn’t want to live and invest in the home of Hobbiton? It’s the dream destination.

So why are so many New Zealanders leaving?

According to news reports…it’s the economy.

BLOOMBERG NEWS: And in the last two years, more New Zealanders have left for Australia for better opportunities in the face of a cost of living crisis.

New Zealand has not recovered from the government’s $58 billion dollar pandemic payout to keep businesses from failing. The temporary influx of so much money increased inflation. Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s extreme green carbon-neutral policies like agricultural methane taxes didn’t help.

Australia and New Zealand’s decades-old reciprocal relationship makes matters worse when Australia advertises their essential worker jobs to New Zealanders. Bryce Wilkinson is an economist and public policy worker and a senior fellow at the New Zealand Initiative.

BRYCE WILKINSON: You know, our newspapers are reporting, you can, if you're a policeman or a nurse or something, you go, go to Australia and get 30 percent increase, or something like that, which is consistent with, with the data.

He says the current numbers of Kiwis leaving the country are high—but they’ve always been high.

WILKINSON: So that has been an ongoing feature of New Zealand's migration flows, that we've had a net outflow of people in 64 of the 69 years between 1950 and 2018.

Late teens and twenty-somethings traditionally drive the country’s annual net migration losses. New Zealanders expect young people to go on a backpacker’s working holiday, to go overseas and see the world.

WILKINSON: And I did so myself in my 20s, and get their overseas experience…it builds integration and knowledge and skills transfer and contacts and understanding of those countries.

Last year, more than 70,000 New Zealanders between the ages of 18 and 30 left the country, but only about a third as many came in. With an already plummeting fertility rate and an aging population, that could lead to economic stagnation and the collapse of rural New Zealand.

Now there are new worries that retirees are also leaving.

Janice Davidson and her family became New Zealand citizens 24 years ago after leaving South Africa. They lived in a rural area at first and had a very difficult time integrating and being accepted until they moved to a more cosmopolitan urban city.

DAVIDSON: I loved it, absolutely loved Wellington. If we’d stayed there, I would have been happy.

Nine years ago a friend convinced her oldest adult son to move to Australia.

DAVIDSON: And he loved it so much. And he settled very happily, and he wanted all of us to join him, so he started working on us.

After her second son moved to Australia, Davidson and her husband sold their house and moved over “The Ditch” to Bacchus Marsh, Australia. Their daughter followed. Now Davidson has grandchildren there. She’s unlikely to go back to New Zealand.

DAVIDSON: You know, grandkids kind of draw you.

Many New Zealanders fear it's turning into an exodus…but is it really?

WILKINSON: We don’t know for sure. We don’t have good enough data. But on the evidence, the people coming into New Zealand are outnumbering those who are leaving.

That means the population of New Zealand continues to grow. Last year official records showed that New Zealand had a provisional net migration of 21,000 people and the year before had a record-setting 135,000 people.

WILKINSON: So in my lifetime, the New Zealand population has gone up from about 3 million to about 5 million today.

Often, they come from Asian countries to escape oppressive governments. Many are also well educated. New Zealand’s official data agency Stats New Zealand says instead of a brain drain, the migrant arrivals and departures work more like a “Brain Exchange.”

WILKINSON: You know, you jump into a taxi in Wellington from the airport, and the taxi driver is from Sri Lanka or India or somewhere…I just sort of say, what's your degree in? And commonly, it's in engineering or something. And I sit there feeling very bad that our labor market’s, not using their skills better.

New Zealand’s COVID-19 travel restrictions significantly curtailed any movement in or out of the country for a few years. From those all-time lows to the peak in October of 2023, arrivals quadrupled. The stats look like a heart rate graph.

But Wilkinson says even since writing his report last year, things have changed.

WILKINSON: The numbers have got less dramatic. I don’t know how to interpret that.

And while overseas arrivals have slowed considerably following immigration policy changes, the rate of New Zealanders leaving continues to grow by a third.

WILKINSON: If people are voting with their feet, well, that's telling you something about yourself. And if you don't like it, you'd better change something about yourself.

Even an influx of new rich investors won’t solve all the country’s problems.

WILKINSON: We need all sorts of people. It's the advantage of as long as you know the money is being earned, you know, by productive employment and entrepreneurial effort, rather than sort of corruption in a corrupt country…but they see potential and feel they can contribute. That's gotta be good.

Reporting for WORLD Tour Special Report, I’m Amy Lewis in Bacchus Marsh, Australia.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Most libraries encounter only bookworms.

Pannonhalma Abbey in Hungary has a different issue: Book beetles. Quite literally, tiny bugs chowing down on thousand-year-old books.

ILONA ÁSVÁNYI (LIBRARY DIRECTOR): [Speaking Hungarian] Amikor meglátok egy könyvet, amit megrágott egy bogár… [Translation: “Each time I see a volume riddled with holes, a little piece of culture feels lost.”]

EICHER: That’s the library director lamenting things. She’s saying here, Every time I see a volume riddled with holes … a piece of culture is lost.

She’s right. These are irreplaceable, hand-bound books.

ZSÓFIA HAJDU (CHIEF RESTORER): [Speaking Hungarian] Ez egy előrehaladott rovarfertőzés… [Translation: “The infestation is so advanced we have to treat the entire collection at once.”]

EICHER: That is the chief book restorer and beetle assassin … my term.

She’s telling why they’re sealing the infested books in bags … squeezing the oxygen out … and letting nitrogen finish up.

Call it the ultimate silent reading room.

No air and pretty soon no beetles.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 16th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: The death of a prominent theologian. John MacArthur died Monday, following a year of health complications.

EICHER: MacArthur’s expository preaching laid a foundation of faith for his church members and radio listeners worldwide.

WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson reports.

KIM HENDERSON: Sunday morning, July 13. A sad announcement at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California.

SPEAKER: You need to know that this week, Pastor John contracted pneumonia…

John MacArthur died little more than a day after that announcement to the congregation he pastored for 56 years. He was 86.

But back in 1969, he was a young Talbot Theological Seminary graduate. When elders at Grace Community considered him for his first and only pastorate, MacArthur made what they thought an unusual request. He wanted 30 study hours each week.

MACARTHUR: When I preach a passage, I wind up preaching what’s in the passage, but I find myself informing the interpretation from things that I’ve learned from all over the Scripture.

He proved the worth of such serious Bible study. Under MacArthur's leadership, Grace Community Church's two morning worship services fill their 3,500-seat auditorium to capacity.

In a 2007 interview, MacArthur emphasized he had always concentrated on the depth of his ministry. He said God would take care of the breadth of it.

He certainly did.

MACARTHUR: Separating Jesus’ stories from propositional doctrinal truth is the nonsense of postmodern language deconstruction. Why would postmodernists want to deconstruct language? Because they don’t like what the Bible says.

MacArthur’s passion for “unleashing God’s truth, one verse at a time” grew into a worldwide teaching ministry.

JOHNSON: Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I’m your host, Phil Johnson.

In 1977, Baltimore’s WRBS became the first radio station to broadcast MacArthur’s sermons. He described it as “the Lord’s perfect timing.”

MACARTHUR: I think it’s fair to say we are now living in an utterly pagan nation…

"Grace to You” radio hit the airwaves when believers across the nation were starved of Bible teaching.

MACARTHUR: In the book of Ephesians you have kind of a model of Christian instruction. You have six chapters…

The radio program airs more than 1,000 times daily throughout the English-speaking world, reaching major population centers on every continent.

AUDIO: [Sound of Grace to You teaching in Spanish]

It also airs nearly 1,000 times daily in Spanish.

The programs even reach remote listeners in Ecuador, where missionary Florence Judd served as a nurse.

Once, she says she canoed to a tribe and was surprised to find them listening to MacArthur in Spanish.

In 1985, MacArthur became president of The Master’s University, a four-year accredited liberal arts Christian college located in Santa Clarita. The next year he founded The Master’s Seminary, a graduate school specializing in preparing men to be pastors and missionaries.

The Los Angeles native was also a popular author. He produced nearly 400 books and study guides, including The MacArthur Study Bible, which has sold more than a million copies.

MacArthur even made guest appearances on Larry King Live.

KING: MacArthur, what happens when you die?

MACARTHUR: Well, when you die you go to one of two places, according to Scripture. You go out of the presence of God forever. Or you go into the presence of God forever.

KING: Depending?

MACARTHUR: Depending upon your personal relationship with Jesus Christ…

The outspoken preacher was known for his strong convictions—convictions that led him to stand against people he saw as false teachers.

Convictions that also pitted him against California Governor Gavin Newsom.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the governor banned large gatherings, including services in houses of worship. MacArthur made national headlines when he continued to hold services at Grace Community Church.

He explains his decision here in an interview with CNN.

MACARTHUR: We don’t ask people to make a reservation to come to church. We don’t know who’s coming…

INTERVIEWER: But you opened the doors, sir.

MACARTHUR: Well, yeah. We opened the doors because that’s what we are. We’re a church. And we’re going to trust those people to make adult decisions about the reality of their physical and spiritual health and how that balance works for each one of them. Nobody’s forcing anything. They’re here because they want to be here.

Biographer Iain Murray wrote that MacArthur’s ambition was to minister the Word of God to the end of his life. To die “with his boots on.” He managed to do that until 2024, when he began battling a series of health issues, stemming from multiple heart surgeries.

MacArthur is survived by his wife, Patricia; four children; 15 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 16th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Before we wrap up today’s program, a quick note for listeners with children nearby…the following commentary is from a young man with grave concerns about our society’s appetite for exploitative images and videos. While he is restrained in his treatment of the topic, you may want to pause the program and come back later for this important segment.

BROWN: One problem with pornography is that it teaches men and women all the wrong things about what God has created as a covenant blessing in marriage. Here’s WORLD Opinions contributor Flynn Evans.

FLYNN EVANS: Let me state the obvious. Pornography is bad for us. Not a surprising statement here. But in a recent opinion piece for The New York Times, writer Christine Emba said it to an audience that may be shocked to hear it.

She says that many today are willing to critique the rampant exploitation within the adult film industry…and its singularly negative cultural impact. But not many are willing to admit openly that pornography is inherently harmful to those who use it. Pornography is distorting and damaging our generation’s view of sexuality.

Consumption of pornography online is practically an epidemic for men. One study from 2022 concluded that over 40% view it on a monthly basis…with a large percentage admitting they watch it weekly.

But it’s no longer just a men’s issue. Fight the New Drug is a secular anti-pornography activist group. It cites that more than 3 out of every 10 PornHub visitors in 2021 were women. A 2023 study confirmed that those numbers are growing. Yet society’s elites often promote pornography as female empowerment.

Political commentator Rob Henderson identifies that as a “luxury belief.” In his words, luxury beliefs are: [pause] “ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class but often inflict real costs on the lower classes” … especially concerning libertarian beliefs about sex and drugs.

For example, it is fashionable within the highly educated upper crust to approve of polyamory and open marriages…in principle. Yet as Henderson notes, few of its public supporters are engaging in those arrangements themselves.

Although luxury beliefs might be associated with the wealthy, they are just as much an indication of an elitist moral progressivism that knows no class boundaries. For the last 60 years, all that is said to ultimately matter for secular sexuality is “consent.” Supposedly, as long as nobody is demonstrably hurt—either physically or psychologically—anything goes.

That’s changing in the age of AI-generated pornography. It frequently violates others. It has forced the national conversation to reconsider what harm means when it comes to sex.

Pornography’s adherents have argued for years that it is harmless…that it is a “safe” way to explore personal preferences and satisfy desires. But as Christine Emba notes, porn consumers are being unknowingly shaped and influenced by exploiters and profiteers that do not have “our best interests at heart.” She adds that like the frog in the slowly boiling water, we “aren’t paying attention to how we’re making things worse for ourselves.”

We were created for committed, monogamous relationships, but we are instead tempted to believe that the tree of universal carnal knowledge is now ripe for the taking with nobody around to immediately judge us. It’s fruit that is pleasing to the eye and is sweet to the taste…but it quickly turns to wormwood and leads to death.

To question porn’s worth to society is not to undermine individual dignity and one’s essential freedoms; it is to remind ourselves what purpose sex is really meant to serve. Rather than retreating further into ourselves, it properly beckons us to know another in the integrity of a covenantal union. We see each other for who we are without shame. When we forget that we are not our own leads us to misuse sex…when it is one of God’s greatest gifts to us in this life.

Online porn’s deceptiveness seeks to keep many of us from experiencing what sex truly offers by keeping us in the clutches of a false sexual gospel. By God’s grace, true freedom still awaits for those who recognize that things were always meant to be better than this.

I’m Flynn Evans.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission wants to look into whether so-called "gender affirming care" can be considered a deceptive and unfair practice for underage consumers. And, California is softening its environmental policies. We’ll hear why.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is Biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says, “At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’” —Matthew 18:1-3 

Go now in grace and peace.

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